OhioFisherman

Laws are a bit different here in the states than up there, with good reason. We are more of a warm water fishery, trout except stocked species are a tough deal to find here. Some of the large baitfish will compete with trout for food. Not a good idea though to ever use any baitfish that isn`t found naturally in the waters you are fishing. xeon, a very good list. It`s been a long time since I have been to Ontario, but even the bait stores up there that I went to made mistakes, Granted it is hard to look at every "minnow?" in the tank, but I have gotten small smalmouth, small brook trout and a moon eye as bait from bait stores up there. Ya goldfish are carp, and tougher than you think, they were in Lake Erie when I was a kid and still are. Back in the winters of 78-79 which were pretty severe for us here a lot of small lakes and ponds had massive fish kills. Too much ice and snow on top the ice, oxygen depletion kills. Seemed like it killed everything but the carp and goldfish in some waters, a lot had to be restocked. Not unusual here to be fishing along the shores of Lake Erie and see a 2-4 pound goldfish swimming around, usually have to get into calmer back bays and tribs to see smaller ones. Back in the 60`s I used to see carp at Pointe Au Baril, sort of a surprise to me as a kid, I also thought the waters were too cold for them.

Great pictures and report, nice to see you got some fish.

There are a lot of good reels out there now and it is just a question of how much money you want to spend. Left or right hand retrieve might narrow your choices a little but not a lot anymore. For either purpose the same reel will do something like a Shimano Citica or if you don`t mind spending a bit more a Shimano Curado, Abu Revo. and others. More of a comfort thing some feel better in your hand and most of the brands in that price range will probably be a quality product. 6.0 - 6.5 to 1 gear ratio is all you need unless you really got it in your head you need a 7 to 1 retrieve reel, I don`t thing so, unless you plan on tossing buzzbaits all day and even then the slightly slower retrieve reels are not really a problem. Just me but my reels generally serve more than one purpose, except when I am fishing for truly outsized fish 200 series Shimano would be fine for either unless you are catching 40+ inch pike all day, or Muskie fishing on a regular basis. I have reels in a variety of retrieve ratios mainly because of the reels age and what was available at the time.

Congrats! sound like a fun time, maybe a little work but is work by the water really work? Have a great season and keep smiling!

LOL Ted, my brother used to raise them in moms little backyard pond, walleye and smallies ate them like candy on lake erie.

Nice Solo, looks like an East of Cleveland trib, The Grand? Never been far enough up the Vermillion on the west side in my boat to see what is up there. My days on the Grand were before Steelhead.

WOW! it`s been a long time since I bought bait! That price makes me glad!

I like the metal base on the seat! Set the hook on a bass one day while sitting on my bow seat and the last thing I saw as I was falling backwards was it jumping and throwing the hook, almost bounced my head off the side of the boat. The plastic base broke, had to stand or sit on the side the rest of the day to use the trolling motor. Buddy got a laugh out of it though.

LOL douG your still a kid, me too I just feel like a geezer! Chukk, ya the net is great! an at home library, it just makes things so much easier. As a kid I had some pretty good teachers, dad, a few of his friends, a couple of uncles. Just a different era, depression kids, fish was food for them. My dads father died when he was 13, 6 brothers and 7 sisters and short on cash, fish to eat. His friends were mostly the same age and had the same thoughts, same life experience. Changes the view on it some I guess when not catching means not eating? Still fun for them when the situation changed and they had decent incomes, but they were sort of self limiting, walleye, perch, crappie, cats, food fish, mix in bluegills. Dad also fished for burbot (lawyers) thru the ice, and I am guessing that anything that bit was bucket bound as a kid. Completely different for me, Dad had some faults, but I never missed a meal because of them, and growing up the fish fry was the regular deal. For me with food on the table regularly food fish weren`t a limiter, I got the bass bug pretty early. Dad would rather fish for just about anything else. The walleye and Blue Pike disappearing from Lake Erie got him going to Ontario. New stuff to learn for me, but still the search for food fish for him. Just different life experiences, I rarely keep fish, he couldn`t let them go without some pain. Next chapter? Italian bread, I never buy it and don`t care to eat it!

It was a thought for me when I purchased my property, I should have researched it more before I bought the property. My land and neighbors has an underground stream bed wandering through it. I first noticed signs of it when the neighbors on the east side of me put in their large garden, they were kicking up a lot of gravel using the roto-tiller. Neighbors on the west side of me hired a guy to put one in about 100 feet behind their home. I came home from work one day and they had piles of dirt pushed all over their yard and 2 bulldozers sitting in the yard. They had scraped all the top soil off the out line of a pond. I went next door and talked to them, did they dig any test holes with a backhoe? No? They should have, a lot of gravel just under the surface, it might not hold water or be very costly to get it to hold water. Next day they had a backhoe out and one scoop hit gravel and the hole filled with water in seconds. A few more holes and scoops still was bring up gravel and holes filling with water. All that has to be dug out and hauled away not good to dike up an end and no telling how much area was like that with out digging holes all over. Neighbor to the west of them has one in his front yard, maybe 3/4 an acre? His home is set back off the road about 150 feet farther than ours, and he had no problems. Lot of ponds in my area but choices of location and size on my property would be very limited.

What type of tackle do you have now? Can you use and are you comfortable with a bait caster? Best set up is going to get you opinions and prices that can make a trip very expensive if you don`t use the tackle much. You can fish for pike and walleye with one outfit, but I never go any where with just one outfit.

http://www.chicagolandcanoebase.com/NoNameLure.html

Some species of minnows are a lot easier to keep, I have found that Emerald shiners seem to need the coolest water and highest oxygen content. Let that water get to warm and they are done. Chubs keep fairly well, will handle a bit warmer water, you need to keep a screen over the top for them, they like to jump out, especially bigger ones. Fathead minnows keep well, the main reason they are sold in most bait stores here away from Lake Erie. Silver and golden shiners also do fairly well. Never been successful trying to keep small shad alive. Up north I used to keep my bait in my livewell with the timer on, they stayed alive for a couple days. I did have to put screens on the overflows to keep them from swimming out.

LOL some of us are geezers and used to fish,

Debatable I guess, I have had bass hit a jig and grub I didn`t get far enough out of the water while using another rod. I also used to flip live minnows on a bobber in weed and lily pockets a few feet away from the boat and it wasn`t over 4 or 5 feet deep.

I was never too concerned with numbers, nice to catch a lot of fish, have some action all day, but? I have had a lot of days catching 30-50 bass a day, 10-20 pike. Nice to catch a bigger fish than normal or average? For me live bait was a way to thin the numbers, eliminate some of the smaller fish from the inbox. You can do it with large lures also, but it involves work, and sometimes it is nice just to be on or by the water and relax. Also a way to put my wife and kids that don`t cast well, not real interested in learning on a bigger fish for some excitement. Also a way to learn, a lure might not get some fish that frequent an area, especially larger ones? It can give you an idea where to concentrate more time, the right time of day to target an area with lures. They might not grab a lure anytime but an easy natural looking meal? Never had any serious issues with hooks, if you are paying a reasonable amount of attention they don`t usually swallow a hook, and if the fish is bigger you don`t have to wait for a hook set. 6-8 inch chubs are easily small enough for 19-22 inch bass, 3-6 pound walleye, just about any pike to take. Strong hook for bigger fish bigger chubs and minnows, 3/0-5/0 never used circles because they weren`t around much. Never used gorge hooks, or any deal like that. If the bottom is a flat I like fishing near an edge using a slip float, a point groove in the bottom like a creek or river channel leading to the flat can be a path for them. Same with a visable point leading to the flat, a deep edge they might travel around. Deeper water a carolina style set up slip sinker swivel leader and hook can be used, keeps the bait near the bottom while you drift, slip bobber also works. Jig instead of a slip bobber works also fuzzy grub, foxie grub, football jig with a grub and tipped wit a larger minnow, a swim jig, used trailer hooks on them for walleye on Lake Erie. Mixed bag fishing, in waters with a mixed bag, cats walleye pike skis bass gar pike bow fin hooked or caught them all using big chubs-shiners. Some walleye on suckers and pike and skis on perch where it was legal. Years ago my buddy got 5 pike in about 10 cast using a good sized perch threaded on a hook like a swim bait, none were very large and the perch was tore up and turning in circles on the retrieve, but we had fish the same area using lures and hadn`t got a hit. A lot of different ways to do it. Rule of thumb for me is bigger bait heavier line, rod, and steel leader if fish with teeth are around.

Just another off the wall tip that may be useful to some. Mono floats pretty well, not perfect, I used to do a lot of live bait fishing with large minnows, chubs, perch and bluegill where legal, ect. A throw a large bait out and let it get itself into trouble while you sit back and enjoy the day kind of fishing. Open bail or bait caster in free spool and let the bait wander. A big chub, perch, will easily take a slip float 100-150 feet from your location, either shore or in a boat, and depending on soaking the bait time the mono will sink. This can cause problems, it sinks into submerges weeds, wood that may be on the bottom, and sometimes the wind is pushing your line one way the fishing going a different way. It can make setting a hook on a fish problematic, you think you have enough slack out of the line for a good hook set and don`t. LOL I like to cross their eyes, especially when using large bait. A product I found that helps to solve this issue was Gerke gink? a wax like fly line dressing that works on mono as well. It used to come in a tin like snuff no idea on it now. Makes being a line watcher a lot easier. Had days when using a 6-8 inch chub would only get you a couple hits a day, making them count was worth the effort. Just like spooling your line, take out as much as you are comfortable letting the bait wander, take a paper towel or piece of cloth and rub some gink on it and run the line back on the reel.

They used to sell clear casting floats that water could be added to for weight, one end was tied to the line and a leader to the other end and the fly attached to the leader. Also a popular item here during the big white bass days was a casting float shaped like a popper with eyelets on both ends, same deal as the casting floats white bass flies sold here were a hook with a piece of electrical insulation and a chicken feather, most of them were painted with eyes to look like small bait fish. http://books.google.com/books?id=4MKQz8g3g...esult#PPA171,M1

according to the ratings I have seen your country is rated ahead of the states in quality of medical care. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/12/opinion/...agewanted=print Like 10 times more people here and a lot more hospitals closer together so not as much travel from out lying areas to get specialty treatment and serious care. And there is always the money involved, doctors here in Ohio saw how much insurance companies were paying for MRI`s back in the late 70`s or 80`s and formed groups to purchase MRI machines and have them in smaller clinics. More profit to them. Most of the hospitals in the Cleveland area are now owned or affiliated with two groups, The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals. The major cause of personal bankruptcy here is medical bills, like 40-50%.

Rob unless you are really good with a bait caster and are using larger soft plastics (heavier) in probably is best to stick with a spinning reel. One of the combinations I used is this reel http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Abu-507-Closed-Face-...A1%7C240%3A1318 on a flipping stick designed for spinning reel use, 7' 6" telescoping but with spinning eyes and handle. The reel is old school and funny looking, but will cast 1/16 ounce lures on 17 pound test, unweighted soft plastics like a 6 inch lizard and hook. Best night fishing reel I have ever used, no line twist no tangles, no catching on the bail. I also use them on a 7 foot medium heavy spinning rod, they cast almost as well as a conventional spinning ree; due to the large line opening and polished stainless lip on the spool cover. Other manufactures have attempted similar designs, D.A.M. Quick CTE , Diawa 125m they are not as good as the original 500 series Abu reels 501, 503,505, 506, 506m, 507 Mark 1, 508 which is a right hand retrieve version of the 507, and 520 which is the same and the European tagged 503. A 507 gold max mark 2 was made in the 90`s, don`t know if it is still in production, it is made in china whereas the other were made in Sweden, heavier than the original, they junked it up with plastic trim. Abu also made a model 1044, fast cast,and premier 704 that are the same style of reel, 1044 is older 704 is still available on British web sites but is a smaller reel than the 507 and won`t have heavy line as well. I have no problems using 20# mono on the 507 mark 1 but don`t use over 12# on the 704. Don`t like the 1044 or Fast cast a plastic reel like the CTE`s and Diawa reel. 507 is a specific tool for a specific job, flipping and pitching very light lures on heavy line, not intended for use with braided line. They do work quite well for all applications though. 501, 503-520 505, 506, 506m are just smaller, like 3/4 scale. A bit pricey because most are also considered collectible. Can`t help you with the rod, haven`t bought a 2 piece rod in over 40 years.

It is a ticking time bomb, a very good friend Russ Enz died of a brain aneurysm at the age of 43. Walking from the cab of the truck back to a customers dock, they were waiting for him on the dock and saw him fall. He was quite the joker, they thought he was playing games until they walked over and saw he was unconscious. He was dead by the time the rescue squad got there. He had complained of headaches for a few days prior to it but was healthy looking with no medical issues in the past. Just my opinion it is not something I would delay.

LOL Brian Fogs? left hand doesn`t work as well as I thought? Left jab is gone it`s a floater now.

How could they keep that and do away with the traditional public executions?

# 1892 – Canadian Governor General Frederick Stanley of Preston pledged to donate what would become the Stanley Cup (1893 version pictured), today the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, as an award for Canada's top-ranking amateur ice hockey club. Hockey?

Let the fogs out about 3:30 am and the spring peepers are working overtime! Got to love this sub-tropical climate? Figure they will be hiding again tomorrow.